That’s not the beginning to a cheesy country song knockoff. It’s
a serious question.

There wasn’t a single one mentioned in the debate for the HS
GameTime Boys Athlete of the Year. Lake Elsinore Temescal Canyon’s
Arica Nassar was the only one brought up on the girls’ side.

So Arica, what makes you the last of a seemingly dying
breed?

“Maybe I’m a little crazy,” the now-graduated Titan said from a
club volleyball tournament in Florida. “I honestly have no idea how
I balanced my time.”

Or maybe it’s because surviving as the dodo bird of high school
athletics requires living with a harsh reality: If you want to do
it all, don’t plan on pleasing everyone.

“Coaches weren’t always happy with me,” Nassar admitted.

It’s hard to believe it’s because they felt a kid with a 4.3 GPA
who’ll play two sports at Oregon State next year wasn’t giving her
all.

“Arica’s remarkable,” Titan volleyball coach Terri Edwards said.
“If anything, I think there were some coaches who were just worried
she was overworking herself.”

That may or may not be thanks to a change in CIF-Southern
Section legislation that took place three years ago.

At the time, the CIF-SS was the last section of high school
sports in the state still clinging to the Association Rule, which
severely limited the amount of contact coaches could have with
athletes outside their sport’s designated season.

On July 1, 2008, the rule was eliminated, giving coaches the
freedom to work with their athletes year-round save for a
three-week “dead period.”

The decision was met with as much praise as dissent.

Three years later, many Inland area coaches say that doing away
with the rule was a big to-do over nothing.

Pete Duffy, who led Moreno Valley Rancho Verde’s football team
to a CIF title game a year ago, said that aside from starting his
summer drills a week earlier, he hasn’t changed a thing.

“I like the idea of giving my coaches and athletes a personal
life,” he said.

The Sharks run evening practices once a week in the spring, as
well as some scattered quarterback camps that would have been
illegal under the Association Rule. They’re not additional
practices, Steinberg explains, they just allow his group to work in
team concepts at a more gradual pace, instead of having to cram
them in over the summer and fall.

Santiago baseball coach Ty De Trinidad breathes easier with his
new schedule, too.

Under the Association Rule, De Trinidad had less than three
weeks to not only select, but also prepare his team for a
three-month season. That forced him to battle summer league
traveling teams because that was the only other time of year he was
allowed to work with his athletes.

With the Association Rule eliminated, De Trinidad runs practices
and prep games in the fall, which means he can afford to give his
athletes the summer to do with as they please.

“It’s a huge load off my mind and it gives the kids a little bit
of a break,” De Trinidad said.

None of the changes have prevented Michael Darr, who was in
Arizona this past week partaking in a club baseball tournament,
from playing both football and baseball at Santiago.

“It’s a challenge, but my coaches definitely make it do-able for
me,” Darr said.

That’s music to both Steinberg’s and De Trindad’s ears, both of
whom believe athletes should be able to play as many sports as
possible at the high school level.

“It’s not a chance you’re going to get again at any point in
your life,” Steinberg said.

With assistants from the baseball and track programs on his
staff, football coach Robbie Robinson says similar discussions take
place at Temecula Great Oak.

“We’ve made some changes since the Association Rule, but our
main goal is to make sure these kids can play as many sports as
they want,” Robinson said.

So why did Nassar’s coaches not always smile when she told them
she had to run to track practice?

In her mind it had less to do with the staff at Temescal Canyon
being slave drivers, though she said “some cared more about me
missing practices than others.”

It likely had more to do with Nassar trying to balance playing
on three high school teams and two club teams with school.

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